Jakarta (ANTARA) – The National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) on Thursday launched the first pilot project of its Siapsiaga (Preparedness) Village program at PelamunanVillage in Serang District, Banten.”Today, we gather to launch PelamunanVillage as a Siapsiaga Village. This program has built a community that is responsive and ready to face all potential threats of violent ideology,” BNPT’sDeputy for Enforcement and Capacity Building Ibnu Suhaendrasaid in Serang on Thursday. ccording to him, the residents of PelamunanVillage have been deemed responsive and ready to face the threat of violent ideologies. The residents were fostered by BNPT for 1.5 months to prepare them for the Siapsiaga Village designation. The fostering program aims to reach out to neighborhood units (RW), community units (RW), and families, which are the smallest community group. The program at the village involved gathering selected villagers and then inviting deradicalization partners and survivors of terror ideologies to share their stories. The agency selected 200 out of the 7 thousand Pelamunan residents to provide coaching on counter-terrorism efforts. “After that, we conducted an assessment according to our measuring instrument, and the results were good, and (we found Pelamunan) is worthy of being a Siapsiaga Village,” BNPT’s head of crisis preparedness and control, Indra Gunawan, informed. Meanwhile, head of BNPT’s intelligence sub-directorate, Senior Commissioner Didik Novi Rahmanto, said that if all villages in Indonesia have resilience like Pelamunan village, then there will be no more room for groups spreading violent ideologies. “If all villages have resilience like PelamunanVillage, those (terror) groups’ whereabouts can be detected, so there is no room for them anymore. There are no more speeches that incite violence,” he explained. Furthermore, Siapsiaga Villages will become a “miniature” implementation of national-level preparedness. ccording to the BNPT, national preparedness is one of the national priority programs for countering terrorism.
Source: Antara News Agency
